Monday, July 02, 2007

AgainDalloyau's lovely croissant. Now I spy a lone almond sitting on top. Was it indeed an almond croissant peut-etre?

The arms-out-straight croissant from AU CHAI DE L'ABBAYE.The controversey of "the arms" has been resolved by both

Kris and Jen .In addition, Kris says,Crescent-shaped croissants (hence their name) are croissants ordinaires, and you can eat them with butter.AND youdon't cut it open or slice it or anything,No, you take a bite. Then you slap a bit of butter ( I prefer "doux" or unsalted) on the bit where you've bitten,And then you eat that, and so on.The straight ones are croissants au beurre,And you don't add butter to them.You just dunk them in your chocolat chaud, or cafe au lait. Are you confused?No need.Any reasonably good cafe will serve the arms-outpur beurre croissant.As well as some very nice Normandie beurre,if you must put butter on your already buttery croissant.This half-eaten one is from Cafe Deux Magots..Oh and don't forget to listen for the correct "CRUNCH" of your croissant.They even discuss this at length in the new film, RATATOUILLE! Again Francois Simon and the Figaro testing team are out there helping us to find Paris' BEST CROISSANTAnd PIERRE HERME is the winner!This man can do no wrong.

This ismy morning croissant.

Just an imprint on a plastic placemat from China

And found in the $.99 cent store!I shall wait for October in Paris to take a bite of the REAL thing.

27 comments:

OK, my Parisian here is arguing that ALL good croissants are "au beurre" and that it's just a shape difference. I see that more testing will be required. Yet again, I must sacrifice myself and force myself to eat lots of pastries for the good of the blogging community. :)

I am inspired along those lines of self-sacrifice by our noble heroine, Carol, of course.

Oh my Lordy, Carol! How did you now that I really needed a croissant today?I shall rush to finish my work and then I will be over at your place and devour all of them!Thanks thanks thanks, you make my day, I have nothing but odd works to do,and not a crumb of decent food in the house.Running off to work and then, wait, I'll eat every last little crumb I'll find in your posts.Hug,M.

AH HA!It seems Madame Blame it on Paris wants to take up the baton or whatever of the Croissant Ordinaire vs.Croissant Pur BeurreBy French law the Ordinaire containing margerine, costs a few centimes less that the Pur Beurre.That's a fact.More on the subject at David Lebovitz.

This is such a wonderful post, a feast for the eye, a craving builder par excellence, the highlight of my day! And your painting is godesslike. I can smell the croissant all the way over the ocean to Vienna (ah, remember that fragrance when your rip that poor innocent thing open? Move over Madeleine, here comes Carol's croissant, Proust would agree!

I can't get over the notion of margarine in the plunderteig! Oh, plessase, wienerbrod only with pure butter in the dough, for croissant's sake. I am so glad the Parisians reserve the original crescent form for the one and only real butter croissants! I would hate to have to cause another revolution over croissant ingredients. :-(

Now that my eyes have feasted virtually, what do I do with my very real lusting after an honest croissant? Croissant hotline? Hear me?

Bonjour Carol,delightful post, gorgeous photos... And slight lapsus: I only conveyed links about the making, JEN commented on the cutting/eating of the croissant. Rendre à César...And I was stunned to see the background place mat of your chocolat chaud because I have the same one from a similar source!

Nothing in the world quite like a buttery, flaky croissant. We eat them for sandwiches at lunchtime, too. I'm definitely not a purist. For breakfast, I like ANY kind, slathered in butter, with homemade jams and marmalades and peach/apple butters, and...

Love the croissant watercolor- and allthese pictures.....make me so hungry. Made me remember Paris and all the croissants I ate there....with coffee. And I second you on the unsalted butter. The best....keep em' coming!

I had "un pain au chocolat" this morning and reading this post makes me feel I should have had "un croissant".At home, we warm croissants up ... and I am the one who dunks mine into my black coffee (alike Di!).My children prefer "pains russes" (also called "pains aux raisins") and "chaussons aux pommes".My husband is very easy-going. Eats anything.

PS - the shape of croissants has nothing to do with ingredients (butter or margarine)

Well, just because the 'data' may be old, or be somehow tainted...I feel it best(my duty really) that I should perform my own 'taste test' of croissants when I get to Paris in September! I shall start with Pierre Herme! And I lonely eat the pure butter ones. I don't get the point of the other ones. If your gonna be a bear...be a grizzly! :)

As a french ( sorry for my english!) I am delightful when I read your post...and thank you so much to explain how to eat croissants ( au beurre bien sur!!) No more crime will done!!!!Yeeppeee!!!!Sophie

Hey Carol, I must say the paintting you have up for this post the best I have seen of your work. I hope this is a very recent piece. Love the way you have zoomed into the composition and the way you take into account all four edges of the paper. Colors are light and beautiful. Good job gurl!